“Ban the Box” Legislation Held in Committee

Assembly Bill 1831, by Assembly Member Roger Dickinson, would prohibit local agencies from inquiring into the criminal history of an applicant on any initial employment application (unless the position is one for which a criminal history background check is already required by law). Local agencies would, however, retain the ability to consider the applicant’s criminal history once the agency has determined he or she meets the minimum employment requirements. The bill was held in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee last Thursday and will not move on to the Senate Floor.

AB 1831 is part of the “Ban the Box” movement in which states, cities and counties across the country have ended inquiring into an applicant’s criminal history on the initial job application in an effort to reduce ruling out the criminally convicted population. The language in AB 1831 also references the Criminal Justice Realignment Act (AB 109) and its focus on reducing recidivism and promoting rehabilitation of offenders and their re-entry into the workforce. AB 1831 exempts law enforcement positio

Senator Lois Wolk, Chair of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, in her decision to hold the bill, commented that the bill’s provisions were too broad and would create unnecessary hurdles for local employers in the hiring process. CSAC will keep counties updated as to the status of this bill.

Workers’ Compensation

AB 2451 (Perez, J.) - Oppose
As amended April 19, 2012

Assembly Bill 2451, by Assembly Speaker John Perez, would allow dependents of a firefighter or peace officer who dies of certain occupational ailments to file for workers’ compensation death benefits from one year of the date of death, irrespective of the date of injury. Those ailments are: heart disease, hernias, pneumonia, cancer, tuberculosis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and bloodborne infectious diseases. Current law requires, with certain exceptions, that the collection of workers’ compensation death benefits must be commenced one year from:

1. The date of death where death occurs within one year from date of injury; or
2. The date of last furnishing of any benefits where death occurs more than one year from the date of injury; or
3. The date of death, where death occurs more than one year after the date of injury and compensation benefits havebeen furnished.

Existing law further prohibits hearings from being commenced more than one year after the date of death, or more than 240 weeks from the date of injury. CSAC opposes AB 2451 as we believe that not only do liberal standards for public safety officers already allow employees to get fairly compensated on the basis of a disease presumption when that injury is presumed to have job causation, but because the provisions of AB 2451 create large liabilities for counties by basically providing life insurance policies to certain public employees. Additionally, the injuries covered in AB 2451 do not have the same close connection to work exposures as do asbestosis and HIV, making it nearly impossible for employers to refute the claim.

Further, AB 2451 would increase workers’ compensation costs for counties alone by roughly $60 million annually (based on an estimate of a $20 million cost increase to Los Angeles County by the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office Risk Management Branch) at a time when local governments are struggling to provide vital services. This bill also erodes the original intent of the Workers’ Compensation Act and subsequent reforms to the system enacted in 2004, designed to provide fair and timely benefits to injured employees at a reasonable cost to employers.